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The brilliant LA TIMES economic writer James Flanigan has provided an informed and cogent plan to deal with California’s economic situation.
The article is titled, “No Time for Sound Bites if State Is to Be Saved”. Flanigan is usually upbeat when others are forseeing doom. If he’s concerned, attention must be paid.
High points (emphasis added):
- [Roll] back regulations and articulate a well-thought-out overhaul of the broken workers’ compensation system, including changing the very definition of an injured worker. Labor advocates will scream, but it’s the only way to make California competitive again.
- On energy policy, for instance, it should be declared that any power company unwilling to renegotiate its costly California supply contracts would be barred from future projects that involve so much as a penny in state funds. Such bare-knuckle tactics would make corporations see red, not to mention file suit, but that shouldn’t deter someone who really cares about curing what ails California.
- As for housing… [address] a tax structure that penalizes communities erecting houses instead of big-box retail centers; excessive environmental restrictions; and runaway liability lawsuits against builders of multiple-family units.
- The most important need… is for changes to the state’s budgeting process. ... keeping tight control over property taxes, the state has forced cities and towns to rely too heavily on sales levies to finance public services, including police and fire protection. Now the whole system has begun to creak. “The state today is characterized by a complete lack of fiscal discipline,” says former Democratic congressman and White House budget director Leon Panetta.
I particularly like the way he addresses the contracts Gray Davis signed with the energy companies, that are costing us an extra $40 billion. Tell them if they ever want any more California business, they have to renegotiate these outrageous contracts.
No one else yet, as far as I know at this time, has provided such a detailed and well-informed plan.
